| 3 Nights in Oslo | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1 |
| Cover: | Brotzmann_3_Nights_in_Oslo.jpg |
| Released: | 2010 |
| Recorded: | February 19–21, 2009 |
| Venue: | Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo, Norway |
| Genre: | Free jazz |
| Label: | Smalltown Superjazzz STSJ197CD |
| Producer: | Paal Nilssen-Love, Peter Brötzmann |
| Chronology: | Peter Brötzmann |
| Prev Title: | Brøtzmann / Drake |
| Prev Year: | 2010 |
| Next Title: | Goosetalks |
| Next Year: | 2010 |
3 Nights in Oslo is a five-disc live box set album by the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1, led by saxophonist Brötzmann, and featuring an eleven-piece ensemble. It was recorded during February 19–21, 2009, at Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo, Norway, and was released on CD in 2010 by the Norwegian Smalltown Superjazzz label. On the album, Brötzmann is joined by saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark, trumpeter and saxophonist Joe McPhee, trombonists Jeb Bishop and Johannes Bauer, tubist Per Åke Holmlander, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, double bassist Kent Kessler, and drummers Paal Nilssen-Love and Michael Zerang. The entire ensemble is heard on discs 1 and 5, while the remaining discs feature duo, trio, and quartet combinations.[1] [2]
The Guardians John Fordham awarded the album a rare full five stars, describing it as "flat-out, no-prisoners, no-tunes free-jazz improvisation." He commented: "Sometimes the group's anthemic sax-choir sound suggests the roots of this approach in John Coltrane's Ascension, but there are fascinating subgroups... It's a virtuosic field day for free-jazz admirers with strong nerves."
Lloyd N. Peterson Jr. of All About Jazz wrote: "there may not be a more creative group of artists anywhere within the boundaries of any art form than those within the Peter Brotzmann Tentet... these are individuals that comprehensively understand their responsibility to art and it is only through this level of integrity and creativity that art can, and will continue to move forward... It is a transcendent music for future generations but perhaps even more important, its brilliance personifies the humility and discovery of our artistic and spiritual realm of existence."[3]
The Free Jazz Collectives Stef Gijssels called the band "the absolute crème-de-la-crème of today's free jazz," and described the music as "magnificent: wild, predictably unpredictable, raw, overwhelming, gargantuan, energetic, forceful... it is absolute fabulous fun for the lovers. You can laugh because of the sheer power and chaos, but the musicians are clever enough to vary with slower, often moving and sensitive moments, giving both artists and listeners a break before all hell breaks loose again."
Writing for JazzWord, Ken Waxman remarked: "The two CDs featuring the ensemble are filled with the palpable excitement from 11 players collectively honking, fluttering and snorting... the band has such control that the climax isn't blood vessel bursting flashiness, but contrapuntal divisions exposing every texture."[4]